IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO.

1, JANUARY 2010 35

A Novel Fault-Locator System; Algorithm,

Principle and Practical Implementation
Mohammad A. Mirzai and Ali A. Afzalian, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—This paper presents a novel fault-locator system for
radial distribution feeders based on the feeder architecture and
voltage and current measurements at a subtransmission substa-
tion (63/20 kV). The proposed algorithm determines the fault lo-
cation precisely by considering the variable characteristic of the
load, unbalanced condition, and unsymmetrical nature of distri-
bution feeders. Load variations affect the accuracy of fault-locator
systems significantly. Real-time load estimation is implemented to
reduce the differences between the calculated fault location and
the actual fault location. In addition, self-supervisory characteris-
tics are added to the system to increase the accuracy of the collected
data. Actual test results demonstrate the effectiveness of the system
in practical applications.
Index Terms—Calculus of variations, distribution feeder, fault
diagnosis, fault locator.
I. INTRODUCTION
plemented in practice, for estimating the location of distribution
faults, consist of using voltages and currents measured at one
or some points of a feeder. Fault-location methods can be di-
vided into three categories: 1) methods that are based on trav-
eling waves [2], [3], [21]; 2) methods that use higher frequency
components (harmonics) [4] of currents and voltages; and 3)
methods that use the fundamental frequency voltages and cur-
rents [5] measured at the terminals of a line. The last method,
also classified as the impedance-based method, consists of cal-
culating line impedances as seen from the line terminals and es-
timating distances of the faults. Impedance-based methods are
more popular among utilities, because of their ease of imple-
mentation. The methods in this category can be further clas-
sified into two subcategories: methods that use measurements
from one terminal of the transmission line and methods that use
measurements taken from both terminals.
The apparent impedance that is calculated by using a funda-

D ISTRIBUTION feeders are the final nuts of the energy

chain, in which energy has been produced, transmitted,
and delivered to the customer. This part of electrical power sys-
mental component is the most widely used method [3]. In the
later case, the results of research led to a fault locator unit in dis-
tance protection relays. Fault locating in the distribution system
tems is just as important as power generation and transmis-
is not an easy task because of its high complexity and difficulty
sion. Commercial experts believe that the distribution feeder
caused by the nonhomogeneity of lines, fault resistance, load
is even more important than the other two parts, because the
uncertainty, and phase unbalance. However, the basic approach
final goal of electrical power generation is selling this energy
to calculate the fault location using voltage and current measure-
to the customer. The reliability of electrical energy is very im-
ment is still the same as in the transmission system case (i.e.,
portant for the customer. The fulfillment of this necessity is not
calculation of the impedance by using the fundamental compo-
always an easy task because distribution feeders are susceptible
nent [5], harmonics [4], or unsymmetrical component [6]).
to faults caused by storms, lightning, snow, freezing, rain, insu-
Recalculation of the voltage and current at each node is also
lation breakdown, and short circuits caused by birds and other
needed for the compensation of the distribution system char-
external objects. When a fault occurs on a distribution line, it
acteristics [5], [7], and [8]. The fact that a distribution feeder
is very important for the utilities to identify the fault location
has many branches or laterals adds the difficulty in the problem
as quickly as possible to improve the service reliability. The
of locating the fault, since estimating the fault location based
restoration can be expedited if the location of the fault is either
on the voltage and current signals yields more than one loca-
known or can be estimated with reasonable accuracy. Therefore,
tion. Heuristic and expert system approaches [9] for locating the
an automatic fault-locator system is an unavoidable part of a dis-
fault in distribution systems are also proposed, which use more
tribution system.
measurements. Measurements are assumed to be available at the
There has been much research on the fault-location problem
sending end of the faulty line segment, that is not true in reality,
in transmission systems [1]. Methods, proposed in papers or im-
as the measurements are only available at the substation and at
limited nodes [10], [11] of the distribution networks through the
use of remote terminal units. The emerging techniques of artifi-
Manuscript received October 16, 2008; revised September 10, 2009. First
published December 04, 2009; current version published December 23, 2009.
cial intelligence (AI) can be a solution to this problem
Paper no. TPWRD-00768-2008. A fuzzy-logic approach was suggested [12], [18] to determine
M. A. Mirzaei is with the Department of Electronic, Control and Instrumen- the most possible fault location.
tation, Niroo Research Institute, Tehran 14686-17151, Iran (e-mail: mirzai142.
nri@gmail.com).
The main contributions of the paper are summarized as fol-
A. A. Afzalian is with Department of Electrical Engineering, Shahid lows.
Abbaspour University of Technology, Tehran 16589-53571, Iran (e-mail: 1) A new method is used in the proposed algorithm to calcu-
afzalian@pwut.ac.ir).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
late the fault location based on the differences between the
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. values of prefaults and during-faults voltages and currents.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2009.2034809

0885-8977/$26.00 © 2009 IEEE

36 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 1, JANUARY 2010

Fig. 1. Hypothetical distribution feeder.

2) This novel fault locator algorithm is derived from the cal- Fig. 2. Prefault equivalent circuit.
culus of variations and is implemented in load-flow anal-
ysis for the first time.
3) Since constant impedance model is used for load modeling,
the variation of the load in the actual condition needs to
be calculated and exerted in the during-fault calculations.
Load variations will be determined based on the prefault
data and the configuration of the distribution feeder. Fi-
nally, the real-time impedances are applied in the fault-lo-
cator algorithm.
4) The output of “Trip Start” contact is employed as an aux-
iliary means to check the accuracy of fault discrimination.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows.
Theoretical and mathematical principles are presented in Sec-
tion II where the proposed method is thoroughly explained. In
Sections II and III, the proposed fault diagnosis, fault classifica-
tion, and fault-locator algorithms are explained and clarified by
using simple examples and illustrations. The required hardware
configuration for collecting data from the distribution feeder is
described in Section IV. The software analysis including Elec-
Fig. 3. One section of a hypothetical distribution feeder.
tromagnetic Transient Program (EMTP) simulation results and
sensitivity analysis is depicted and compared in Section V. The
result of field tests is presented in Section VI. Both simulation In addition, the impedances used in the during-fault equiv-
and practical results were interpreted as well as compared with alent circuit of each section of the distribution feeder are cal-
the results of other studies in Section VII. culated based on the prefault condition. Therefore, the prefault
load variation must be exerted in the postfault equivalent circuit.
The equivalent circuit for section is illustrated for the pre-
II. FAULT-LOCATION PRINCIPLES fault condition in Fig. 2. Thevenin equivalent impedances of the
rest of the feeder toward the end of the feeder are measured from
Consider the feeder shown in Fig. 1 as an example of a radial point of the section .
distribution feeder. In this feeder, sections and buses are speci- In Fig. 3, the ideal three-phase voltage sources represent the
fied with unique numbers starting from 1 to for the sections input voltage at point . The voltage values are extracted from
and from 1 to for the buses. the prefault load flow information. The equivalent Y model of
the load is shown for each section in Fig. 2 where is the
load variation.
A. Prefault Load Estimation The objective of the load estimation is to determine the
amount of changes in impedances ( , , and )
Loads vary unpredictably in distribution feeders. These vari- based on the prefault values of voltages and currents in this
ations affect the performance of fault locator systems signifi- section.
cantly. A fault-locator system is a real-time device and needs KVL equations at the source side can be written in the matrix
to measure the load variation somehow. In this study, the con- form
stant impedance model is used. The amount of load impedance
varies in each phase during the normal operation of the distribu-
tion feeder before the fault takes place. The variations should be
incorporated in the during-fault equivalent circuit because it is
assumed that the load remains unchanged during the short fault (1)
interval.
MIRZAI AND AFZALIAN: NOVEL FAULT LOCATOR SYSTEM 37

Fig. 4. Underground cable single line ( model).

K.V.L equations at the load side are written as

Fig. 5. Limitation of using (4).

Fig. 3 shows the “during fault” equivalent circuit of section J.

Let s rewrite equations in the matrix form
the during-fault equivalent circuit is the same as the “pre-fault”
circuit shown in Fig. 2 except, R has been added at the point F.
Using the circuit in Fig. 3, D and R values can be determined
as follows.
We know from the calculus of variations [16] that the varia-
tion of a functional can be approximated as

(2)
Vector can be easily worked out by
solving (1) and (2) simultaneously. Finally, during-fault equiv- (4)
alent Impedance is achieved and will be used in the
during-fault calculation
KVL equations for loop 1 in Fig. 3 can be written as
Loop 1
(3)

The current and voltage signals are measured at the substation

(5)
but only the prefault values are used in the feedforward load
flow to determine the values of the currents and voltages at the Let us define a fault function F as
other points. The calculated values are used for the real-time
load estimation in the other sections.
A simple prefault equivalent circuit is used for the modeling,
each section of the distribution feeder is as shown in Fig. 2.
The measured voltages at bus 1 are used as the sources-side (6)
voltages for section 1 in the equivalent circuit. For the other
sections, the sources-side voltages are the end-point voltages of The deviation of the functional can be approximated as
the previous section. The end-point voltages are calculated by
using (1). The vector and are calculated based on (2),
(3) and are sorted in a database for “during fault” calculations.
This procedure is repeated for other sections of the feeder up to
the last section. (7)

B. Fault-Location Algorithm It is assumed that there is no change in and during the

fault (i.e., and ).
Assume that a single-phase fault occurs at kilometers from Therefore
the beginning of the section along the distribution feeder of
Fig. 1. The final goal is to determinate which is the accurate
location of the fault by using the currents and voltages values
measured at the beginning of the distribution feeder (63/20 kV
subtransmission substation). The fault resistance (R) is also
achieved as a subsidiary result. (8)
38 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 1, JANUARY 2010

Fig. 6. Waveform patterns associated with different faults (a) A conductor was broken and immediately eliminated by CB. (b) Fuse. (c) CB. (d) Coordinated fuse
and Autorecloser operation waveform.

or By solving (13), D and R are achieved

(9)
(17)
Let us define
(10)
or
(11)
Then, we can write
(18)
(12)
(13) (19)
(14)

The fault location (D) can be easily calculated based on (9). Equations (18) and (19) are used in the fault-locator algo-
Thereafter, R is achieved easily. rithm. As shown in (18) and (19), D and R are strongly de-
To do this, (9) is rewritten in the complex form pendent on and . Considering the fact that the “prefault”
voltage is approximately constant, the “prefault” current varia-
(15) tion determines the “prefault” load variation in the distribution
feeder.
Therefore In order to use (4), the variation must be small as shown
in Fig. 4 [13].
As a result, the terms and
(16)
are neglected in (1).
MIRZAI AND AFZALIAN: NOVEL FAULT LOCATOR SYSTEM
In the cases where the during-fault current variation is signif-
icant in proportion to the prefault current, (18) and (19) are not
accurate.
In these cases, (22) and (23) are used to determine and ,
respectively, but the variation of the during-fault and prefault
values meets the condition of
(20)
(21)
On the other hand, for the faults to take place in the beginning
sections of the feeder, (22) and (23) are used but for the other
sections, (18) and (19) are strongly recommended [7]
(22)
(23)
The flowchart of the algorithm for finding the fault location is
shown in Fig. 5. Due to the radial structure of distribution sys-
tems, the fault-location algorithm can obtain multiple choices
for the fault locations when measurements are only available at
the substation. Thus, it is necessary to identify the actual fault
location from the calculated multiple choices by using an addi-
tional fault diagnosis algorithm.
C. Underground Cable
The algorithm and the system are designated to find the fault
location in underground and overhead distribution feeders. The
underground fault-location estimation formula is slightly dif-
ferent than the overhead line because the parallel capacitors in
the section model (Fig. 4) cannot be neglected and the amount
of this capacitor is significant.
In the case of underground cables, (10) will be substituted by
(24)
where
(25)
and
(26)
III. FAULT DIAGNOSIS ALGORITHM
The voltage and current signals are being recorded in the sub-
station when a fault occurs along the main or lateral branches of
a distribution feeder. These recorded signals contain important
information which can be used for diagnosing the fault.
The first piece of evidence which can be applied to the fault
diagnosis process, involves the sequence of events extracted
from the waveforms. The method is called “waveform pattern”
39
TABLE I
RELATION BETWEEN PREFAULT AND DURING-FAULT QUANTITY
V : faulted line voltage;
I : prefault current;
V : zero-sequence voltage;
I : faulted line current;
V : unfaulted line voltage;
I : zero-sequence current;
V : nominal phase voltage.
[14], which is classified under “pattern recognition.” In order to
apply the method for the fault diagnosis purpose, four main pat-
terns are defined and called basic pattern. A fault current wave-
form in the distribution feeder is then compared with each basic
pattern. The patterns are defined over three or four intervals (i.e.,
prefault, during-fault, and postfaults time intervals. These wave-
form patterns are shown in Fig. 6. Distribution feeders are al-
ways liable to be affected by dangerous situations of various
types of faults. There are varieties of protective devices, such
as cutout fuses, autoreclosers, and protective relays. Protective
relays (OC/EF) are installed in the substation in order to protect
the main branch of the feeder while cutout fuses and autore-
closers are mainly erected in the lateral branches. In the pro-
tection expert point of view, faults are classified into three main
groups: 1) low impedance fault along the main branch; 2) broken
conductor faults; and 3) the operation of the protective devices
in the lateral branches [18].
The overcurrent relay operates immediately when low
impedance faults occur along the main branch. Consequently,
C.B. operates to prevent further damage. The waveform of this
class of fault is illustrated in Fig. 6(c). The class of fault (low
impedance) can be identified by using Table I [15].
Sometimes, a severe accident causes a breakdown in con-
ductors of overhead lines. If broken conductors fell on other
live conductors, the fault can be easily detected because of
the current increase in the affected phases. However, the main
branch current differs slightly when the conductors fall on
the ground. This type of fault cannot be detected easily if the
earthing transformer connected the secondary side of power
transformer (63/20) to the ground. Indeed, the fault detection in
this type of fault strongly depended on the network grounding
method.
The waveform changes when the overhead line conductors
are broken and falling on the ground, the second interval is di-
vided into two parts (i.e., “open-line” and “during-fault.” On the
other hand, in addition to the three fundamental parts of the fault
current waveform, “line-open” interval is added to the sequen-
tial events of the waveform. The current pattern of this kind of
fault is illustrated in Fig. 6(a)
40 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 1, JANUARY 2010

Fig. 8. Fault diagnosis in the scheme that the autorecloser and fuse were coor-
dinated.

the protective coordination knowledge is applied to the diag-

nostic process, consider a fault on a lateral as shown in Fig. 8.
In these cases, the exact place of the fault is determined by using
the same way as explained in example1.
Example1. Suppose a fault occurs at point 1 in the network as
shown in Fig. 8. If a fuse-saving scheme is employed, the fault is
first treated as a temporary fault, and the recloser on the feeder
operates tries to clear the fault. If the fault is permanent, the
fuse at the head of the tap melts to clear it permanently before
the recloser operates at the third or the fourth time. This practice
limits the number of customers affected by a permanent outage.
The waveform of this practice is shown in Fig. 6(d).
Note that the operation of the distribution protective devices
can be observed from the voltage and current waveforms
recorded at the substation. Fig. 6(d) shows a faulty-phase
current waveform.
The second piece of data is the load-change pattern observed
at the substation during the operation of the protective devices.
After the operation of each protective device along the distribu-
tion feeder, the load level on the faulted phase observed at the
substation drops from the normal condition to the postfault con-
dition, as illustrated in Fig. 6(a), (b), and (d).
When a fault occurs at point 1, the fault-locator algorithm
suggests three points as fault-location candidates. The asym-
metry of lateral branches must be considered in order to find
the correct answer. In addition, the probability of having two
branches with the same current is very low. Therefore, it is as-
sumed that no branches have similar current. Thus, the reduction
in the source current due to outage of a specific lateral branch is
definite and unique [15].
There are three for the fault at point 1:
In branch I

(27)

In branch II

(28)
Fig. 7. Fault-locator algorithm. In branch III

(29)
The fault-locator algorithm suggests multiple choices for the
fault location in lateral branches (Fig. 7). As an example of how Only is the right answer (Fig. 8).
MIRZAI AND AFZALIAN: NOVEL FAULT LOCATOR SYSTEM
Fig. 9. Hardware schematic of data acquisition, fault diagnosis, and locator
system.
Fig. 10. Start and trip signals sequence and priority.
Note that the load-flow calculations must be carried out on
the collected data before this step, twice (prefault and during).
IV. HARDWARE CONFIGURATION
Fig. 9 shows the block diagram of the experimental
system, including data acquisition, fault locator, and diag-
nosis subsystems.
The current and the voltage transformers sample-and-hold in-
terface, fault locator, and fault diagnosis subsystem are essential
parts of an actual distribution fault-locator system. In this paper,
two outputs contacts of the OC/EF relay; “Protection Trip” and
“Trip Start” signals are used to help the data-acquisition system
work precisely. When every transient or steady-state phenom-
enon occurs in the distribution feeder; OC/EF relay becomes
ready to send a “trip” signal to the circuit breaker if it diagnoses
a fault. Current variations are observed by the protection relay
continuously. If the change in the current amplitude becomes
more than the start threshold, then the protection relay activates
“Trip Start” output. When the amplitude of current increases to
the level of trip threshold, moreover, it remains to fulfill the time
setting of the OC/EF relay, then the “protection trip” output is
activated. This simple procedure is shown in Fig. 10.
The “Protection Trip” and “Trip Start” output help
sample-and-hold the subsystem to collect actual fault data
41
Fig. 11. Flowchart of the fault-locator software.
rather than disturbance. Furthermore, the trip contact in the
fault locator subsystem initiates a special function dealing with
the main branch fault in order to find possible multiple or single
fault location along the main branch of the distribution feeder.
The sample-and-hold subsystem includes eight channels of an
analog-to-digital converter (ADC) based on the PCI bus with a
10-kb/s sample rate. The fault diagnosis and locator subsystem
are implemented on an industrial PC with a high-speed Pentium
processor (3 GHz). This unit is compatible with a 110-VDC
power supply of the substation.
The system must work in high-voltage environments; there-
fore the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) requirement is
considered in the design and implementation processes.
The fault-locator system is implemented in user-friendly
software. The software consists of three parts; sample-and-hold
driver, fault locator and diagnosis, the distribution architec-
ture, and protection coordination database (Fig. 11). The
fault-locator system uses the fundamental power frequency
component. Fast Fourier transform (FFT) is applied to convert
these samples (48 samples per cycle) to the equivalent vector
of the measurements. The actual fault-locator system also uses
the prefault load-flow information as another input to find the
fault location.
The distribution feeder is analyzed by EMTP [19]. EMTP is
also used for preparing the artificial fault signal in the various
conditions to test the fault-locator algorithm. The fault current
is sent as a matrix to the fault-locator functions by the software
interface module.
ATPDraw is a graphical preprocessor and is used to create
and edit circuit files. Fig. 12 was modeled in ATPDraw and all
of the fault signal generation, load flow, and sensitivity studies
had been conducted in this software before starting the practical
phase of the project, and parameters, such as, fault location, fault
impedance, load impedance changed frequently. The effect of
changes in each parameter on the calculation result were studied
by using ATPDraw (Fig. 16–21). Transformers, overhead lines,
switches, and load models are available in the ATPDraw library.
The parameters of these models can be tuned easily. Moreover,
42
Fig. 12. Fault simulator and algorithm tester.
ATPDraw can be used for steady-state and transient analyses
precisely.
The load-flow files are used as a part of the distribution data-
base and updated periodically every six months based on the
newest changes in the feeder architecture and devices. The re-
sulting database is applied to the fault-locator system.
ATPDraw file is created for preparing the load-flow file and
set for steady-state simulation. The output of this process is used
as the prefault load-flow file. In addition, some information re-
ferring to protection devices, such as fuses and autoreclosers
information, is incorporated in this file. Other parts of the block
diagram (Fig. 11.) are common modules.
The operation of the algorithm was tested in the laboratory
environment before it was used in the field. A setup is prepared
to check the functionality of the system (Fig. 12.) The block di-
agram is very similar to the real system block diagram (Fig. 11)
except the fault signals. The laboratory fault signals are pre-
pared in EMTP software while in the fault locator system, the
analog-to-digital interface cards collect data (Fig. 11).
The electrical single-line diagram of the feeder map is shown
in Fig. 13
First, the information of the feeder (i.e., overhead line con-
figuration, transformer nameplate data, conductor, and load in-
formation) is collected by a global positioning system (GPS)
receiver. Second, this information is converted to the AutoCAD
file and completed by other electrical information. The ATP-
Draw file is prepared by using the appropriate model for each
element of the distribution feeder and in accord with the infor-
mation in the AutoCAD file. The GENTRAFO model, LCC line
model, and RLCY3 models are used to model the distribution
and 63/20 power transformer, overhead line and load, respec-
tively. Finally, operation functions, such as vector estimation,
fault detector, and fault locator are prepared in MATLAB and
converted to the C++ by using the and changer.
V. SIMULATION RESULTS
The simulation study consists of two parts: algorithm accu-
racy test and sensitivity test. In the algorithm accuracy test, the
fault-locator algorithm is evaluated and its accuracy has been
achieved. In the sensitivity test results, some parameters, such
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 1, JANUARY 2010
as load, the place of fault, and the resistance of fault are changed
intentionally and the error of this variation is measured. Both of
these results are very important.
Simulation signals are prepared for the test in the EMTP soft-
ware [20]. A set of generated voltages and currents signals is
shown in Fig. 14 and 15, respectively. The fault resistance in
this case is .
A. Algorithm Accuracy Test
The accuracy test results for faults in different places of the
feeder are given in Table II. In this test, a phase-ground fault is
placed from the beginning to the end of the feeder and then the
difference between actual fault place and the calculated
fault place is measured.
In this study, a phase-ground fault is studied. Similar results
are achieved with the other types of faults (Table II).
B. Sensitivity Analysis Test
The sensitivity of the fault location to the variation in load,
section length, and fault resistance are studied (Fig. 16–21).
The load is changed from 50% to 175% of its nominal value.
These changes do not happen in reality. The variations in the
amplitude of the feeder currents are approximately 15% of
the nominal current in a short period of time. Mostly, the dis-
tribution feeder is over designed based on a 10-year extension.
In these cases, the maximum current of the feeder increases
steadily up to 175% of the nominal current during future years.
VI. FIELD TEST RESULTS
In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed system,
field tests have been conducted on several distribution feeders
by using actual data signals. The DAQ circuit is used to gather
transient data at the substation. Outage reports on this feeder are
provided by the area distribution operations center and subtrans-
mission dispatching center in order to determine the location of
the faults.
The calculated fault distance is compared with the dis-
tance from the actual fault location to the substation . The
test results are summarized in Table III. The error of the fault
distance computation is between 1.65% and 3.31%. This corre-
sponds to a distance ranging from 75 to 366 m. For distribution
feeders with a length of several kilometers, this accuracy makes
it possible for personnel to quickly find the location of the fault.
Actual voltage and current waveforms are shown in Figs. 22 and
23.
The fault locator was employed actually in the field test, and
the algorithm was tested via a set of online recorded data in
the substation (All data collection hardware and fault location
algorithm were tested online). Indeed, fault calculation never
implemented on the off-line system based on actual collected
signals in the laboratory, the system works online and without
interruption, exactly similar to a protection relay.
VII. DISCUSSION
In [7] the error fluctuates from 1.13% to 3.42, however the
fault type varies in some cases. The error (%) versus fault loca-
tion (km) of this study is compared with the one reported in [7]
(Fig. 24). as shown in Fig. 24, the error in the fault location in
MIRZAI AND AFZALIAN: NOVEL FAULT LOCATOR SYSTEM 43

Fig. 13. Electrical single-line map.

the proposed system is less than or equal to the one in [7] in five That is because; two different algorithms were applied for the
cases. There is only one case where our result is worse than [7]. different part of the distribution in this study.
44
Fig. 14. Generated fault voltage waveform in EMTP for the fault in phase C
R = 2
. ( )
Fig. 15. Generated fault current waveform in the EMTP for a fault in phase C
R = 2
.
TABLE II
ALGORITHM ACCURACY TEST RESULT
The error curves (Fig. 16–21) do not have regular patterns.
They decrease in the first part and increase in the second part in
many cases. Regular error patterns change absolutely increase
or decrease from the beginning to the end. Therefore, they can be
reduced or compensated easily. This study not only presented a
new method for estimating the fault location precisely, but also
suggests that a future research work looks for algorithms and
methods which compensate and reduce the calculation error in
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 1, JANUARY 2010
Fig. 16. Error in D versus load variation in three different fault resistances
R along the 18th section.
Fig. 17. Error in D versus load variation in three R along the 12th section.
Fig. 18. Error in D versus load variation in three R along the 25th section.
different cases, such as unbalanced phases, unpredictable load
variation, various structure, and configuration of distribution
feeders and a variety of fault types.
VIII. CONCLUSION
This paper proposed an effective fault-location algorithm as
well as a novel fault diagnosis scheme. The proposed fault-lo-
cation algorithm identifies a fault locations candidate by using
an iterative estimation of the load current and the fault current at
each line section. The diagnosis subsystem determines the ac-
tual location by comparing the current waveform pattern with
MIRZAI AND AFZALIAN: NOVEL FAULT LOCATOR SYSTEM
Fig. 19. Error in D
versus fault-location distance from the beginning of the
feeder in threeR in the ABG fault type.
Fig. 20. Error in D
versus fault-location distance from the beginning of the
feeder in threeR in the ACG fault type.
Fig. 21. Error in D versus the fault-location distance from the beginning of
the feeder in three R in the AB fault type.
the expected pattern belonging‘ to the operation of the protec-
tive devices. In the non-DA system, the proposed technique can
be implemented on a digital fault locator system installed at a
substation. This digital system can also be applied for the dis-
tribution-management system (DMS) as a subsystem. Although
the fault locator can be installed as a stand-alone device, addi-
tional digital input from the digital protection relay increases the
45
TABLE III
SUMMARY OF THE TEST RESULT
Fig. 22. Measured current waveform (phase A is the faulted phase).
Fig. 23. Measured voltage waveform (phase A is the faulted phase).
accuracy of the system outcome. Various simulation results and
field tests have shown a practically satisfactory accuracy and
the robustness of the proposed algorithm to the load variation.
The actual test reports and simulation results validated the ac-
curacy and applicability of this new algorithm in practice. An
efficient mathematical method, based on calculus of variations,
was also presented. The method can also be employed in the
load estimation and dynamic network analysis of distribution
feeders. This method solves some of the problems in conven-
tional fault locating algorithms such as the dependency of the
accuracy on the length of the feeder, sensitivity of location to the
fault resistance, and load variation. This method is very useful
for high-impedance fault-locator systems.
46
Fig. 24. Actual test results in this paper and the same study.
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Mohammad A. Mirzai received the B.Sc. degree in
electrical engineering from the Power and Water Uni-
versity of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2002.
He joined Sapta Co., Tehran, in 2004. Since 2006,
he has been a Project Manager and Research Engi-
neer in the Department of Electronics, Control and
Instrumentation of Niroo Research Institute, Tehran,
Iran. His current research interests include the appli-
cation of fiber-optic technology and data communi-
cation in substation and powerplant automation, nu-
merical protection and control, intelligent electronic
devices, bay control units, fault locators, and event recorders in the distribution
network.
Ali A. Afzalian (M’93–SM’06) received the B.Eng.
and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from
the University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, in 1988 and
1991, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in control
system engineering from the University of Sheffield,
Sheffield, U.K., in 1998.
He is a Faculty Member (Lecturer in 1991, As-
sistant Professor in 1998, and Associate Professor in
2008) in the Department of Electrical Engineering of
Shahid Abbaspour University of Technology, Tehran.
His research interests include supervisory control of
discrete-event systems, fuzzy logic, neural networks, neurofuzzy systems, ge-
netic algorithms, as well as electrical power systems control and dynamics.